When The Ghost Came
by Smart Alex
Summary: George was always the odd one out. But everything changed when the ghost came.. An AUish look at George and Fred. Oneshot.


**When The Ghost Came**  
_a story about George and Fred_

-

Bill is at Hogwarts and Charlie just left this year, Percy is busy reading and George is alone. He sits in the garden, and watches the  
gnomes run around the yard, ignoring him because they know that he won't do anything to them. He sits by himself, while Mum  
takes care of Ron and Ginny, and Dad is at work, and thinks of what it would be like if he weren't alone.  
"Hello," says a voice, and he jumps. There is no one there.  
He ignores the voice, and goes back to watching the gnomes, before anxiously picking at his torn jeans.  
"Didn't you hear me?" says the same voice, and this time he looks straight above him, in the air, and can almost see a faint glimmer  
of something. Someone.  
"I don't want to talk to a ghost," George says bluntly. "I don't like them. The ghoul's bad enough."  
The ghost sighs. "But don't you know me?"  
"No," says George.  
"I know you," says the ghost.  
George watches the gnome chase after a bird and sighs. "All right, then. What may I do for you, ghost?" he asks, polite as his  
mother taught him to be. "And would you like to come in?"  
"Yes please," says the voice.  
They go up to his room, his room that he shares with Percy and used to share with Charlie, too. He sits on the bed and stares at  
the shimmer in the air.  
"Do you feel like you've got a hole in your side? Like something used to be there, like a wrinkle in a shirt, but just.. went?" the ghost says suddenly. "Yes," says George, and finds that it's the truth.  
"That's my fault," says the ghost, "I wasn't supposed to die. I was supposed to be with you."  
George stares at the ghost, and the ghost glimmershimmers back in a ghostly stare, and then they are thinking together of a past  
that could have been and a future that could have happened.  
"What's your name?" George asks.  
"I don't have one," said the ghost voice quietly. "I died before Mum could name me."  
"I can ask for you," George suggests. "Mum'll tell me anything if I go about it right."  
"All right," says the ghost, already sounding more cheerful. "I'll wait for you here." 

-

George clatters down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mum is making cookies and letting Ron taste the spoon. Ginny is carefully  
crawling towards Mum's wand.  
"Mum, can I ask you something?" he asks in his best behaved voice.  
"Yes, George, dear?" Mum replies, muttering under her breath 'careful, Ron, that doesn't go in your stomach'.  
George hopes that Mum will be distracted enough to just give him an answer, instead of questioning his motives,  
and asks, "If I had had a brother.. What would he have been named?"  
Mum sighs, and her eyes go far away, as Ron chews on the spoon. "Your father and I liked Fred, as a name. We haven't had a chance  
to use it yet, but.."  
Ginny waves Mum's wand, and sends ten bright butterflies flying around the kitchen. Mum drops Ron, and goes to grab  
Ginny (and her wand) before something else happens.  
George sneaks back upstairs to his room.

- 

"I think you were going to be Fred," George says.  
"Fred," the ghost muses. "It's a decent name, I suppose."  
Something happens, then, and the ghost becomes more real. Instead of being a glimmer in the air, it becomes a blue-toned boy,  
with freckles, and shabby clothes, who certainly would have had red hair if he had been real. The ghost stares down at himself in  
astonishment, and does a somersault in the air.  
"I'm Fred!" the ghost cries, only he isn't the ghost anymore, because he's _Fred_.  
George grins, and can't stop grinning, because Fred looks exactly like him, and he knows that he won't be alone anymore.  
But then Percy comes in without knocking, and puts his book back on his own private shelf. George is still grinning, and Fred is  
hovering near the ceiling, suddenly looking very afraid.  
Percy looks at George and frowns, adjusting his glasses. "What're you grinning at?"  
George shakes his head. "Nothing."  
Fred's sneakered foot taps against the doorframe with a nervous twitch, and Percy looks straight up at the ceiling. His reaction  
doesn't change at all. "Stupid ghoul, rattling around up there.." he mutters, and leaves.  
"He couldn't see you," says George.  
"I wonder why?" says Fred.  
"Wicked," they say together.

-

Late one night, after the dinner dishes are charmed to scrub themselves clean, Fred goes to explore the house. George is  
getting ready for bed, and it was boring to watch Percy supervise him brushing his teeth. Fred has lived with George for two weeks,  
and George has told him all about his family. Fred almost feels like he knows them all, now. Fred only ever knew Mum before, and  
that was for a very short time.  
"He's spending more and more time by himself," Mum says in a hushed voice. Mum and Dad are talking together in the parlor,  
a room filled with worn furniture and traces of all the children who use it. Except for Fred.   
"Perhaps he's made a friend," Dad suggests quietly. "There are lots of children in the village."  
"No, he never goes that far, I'd see if he did," Mum says, and Fred realizes that they are talking about George.  
"Well, he'll be all right, I'm sure," Dad says. "Let's not worry about it too much. Especially not you, not now, anyway."  
Mum laughs, and nods, not looking fully convinced. "Fine."  
If they said any more, Fred didn't hear it, because he was already floating back upstairs to find George.

-

The next day, Fred is out in the garden playing with the gnomes while the rest of the family is eating dinner. Ron has already got  
mashed potato on his ear, while Percy is itching to go back to his book. Ginny sips her diluted pumpkin juice with loud smacks. All  
George wants to do is go and play with Fred, but Mum said he couldn't until they were all done.  
Finally, Dad puts down his fork, and beams at them all.  
"Well, Weasleys, something exciting is going to happen," he announces.  
"Did you get a promotion, Dad?" Percy asks.  
"Christmas is early?" Ron asks hopefully, and everyone laughs. Even Fred, outside the window, snorts.  
"We're moving?" George asks, with a sinking sort of feeling in his stomach.  
"No, nothing like that," Dad reassures him. "There's going to be another baby."  
Dad and Mum smile at them, and Percy sighs.  
"When?" Ron asks.  
"In about two months," Mum says. "You'll all have a little brother."  
"NO," says a loud voice. George is surprised to realize that it was his own. "I don't want a brother," he adds forcefully. "Why can't  
things just stay the way they are?"  
He gets up from the table and runs outside.  
Ginny begins to cry as he slams the door.

- 

"There's going to be a baby," George tells Fred. They are in the broom shed, with the door slightly ajar so that some light can  
come through.  
"What kind?" Fred asks seriously.  
"A boy," says George. "I don't want it to come."  
Fred sits down next to George and puts a comforting transparent hand on his shoulder. "You'll have a real brother, then! That  
can't be all bad."  
"But I don't want another real brother. I've got plenty of those. I like having you," George says, and blinks back his tears. "I'm  
not alone, with you."  
Fred sighs. "I don't think I can stay now, George."  
"Why not?" George asks. "Where would you go?"  
"I'm not sure. It's just a funny feeling I've got. Maybe it's nothing," Fred says light-heartedly, but they both know it isn't nothing  
and that it is something.  
George does cry, now, and wishes he could hug the boy sitting next to him. Fred nods, eyes glistening, and George knows that  
his twin wishes the same thing.  
"I'm sorry, George," Fred says in a small voice. "I think.."  
"All right," George cuts him off, and wipes his nose on the sleeve of his sweatshirt, a well-worn shirt that had belonged to Bill.   
"Thank you for telling me who I was," Fred says seriously. "And please remember you're not alone. You've got a real family in there.  
They love you."  
George nods, and grins. "Yeah. They do. 'bye, Fred."  
Fred grins back, and waves, then suddenly he isn't there.

Dad pulls open the door of the broom shed and sighs in relief. "Oh, George, I'm so glad we found you, your mother and I were so  
worried." He grabs George and hugs him tightly.  
George, feeling a bit silly, lets himself hug his father back just as tightly. 

-

Mum is in her and Dad's room with the Mediwitch, and George is outside in the garden with Percy and Ron and Ginny. Percy is being  
nice for once, and is attempting to play clapping games with Ginny and Ron. George was playing too, but now he didn't feel like  
joining in.  
Dad opens the door, and all four of them scramble to their feet and begin talking. ("How's Mum?" Percy asks. "Did the baby come?"  
George asks. "Mumma?" Ron and Ginny say together.)  
"Hush," Dad laughs, giving Ginny a kiss and tousling Ron and Percy's hair. "She's fine. He's fine. George, would you like to come and see?"  
George nods, and follows his dad inside.  
Mum looks tired, but oddly happy, and the Mediwitch is packing her bag to leave. There is a bundle in Mum's arms that must be  
the new baby, and George crawls up on the bed to see it.  
Blue eyes open and look up at him, and George grins. He would recognize those eyes anywhere.  
"I know you," he says.  
"We would like to name him Fred," says Mum. "What do you think, George?"  
"I think it's perfect," George says, and gives Fred and Mum a hug.  
Fred closes his eyes again, and goes to sleep.


End file.
